1. Field of the Invention
The present invention pertains to the art of refrigerators and, more particularly, to an assembly for retaining food on a shelf in a refrigerator.
2. Discussion of the Prior Art
In the art of refrigerators, fresh food compartment doors are generally formed from an outer metal shell to which is attached a plastic inner wall defining liner. It is known to provide such liners with shelving units to support a wide range of food items. Such shelving units can be constituted by planar dike portions of the liner, pick-off buckets removably attached to the liner, or the like. In any case, when supporting food items on such shelving units, it is desirable to prevent the food items from becoming dislodged or shifting upon a sudden movement of the fresh food compartment door.
To prevent food items from undesirably shifting, it is known to employ a divider which essentially separates a storage shelving unit into various, smaller sections, thereby limiting the permissible shifting of food items stored thereon. It is also known to provide a slidable retainer in connection with a refrigerator shelving unit wherein the retainer can be manually slid into engagement with one or more food items supported on the shelving unit in order to limit shifting of the food items. One exemplary arrangement of this type is disclosed in connection with a dairy compartment in U.S. Pat. No. 5,765,390.
Even when a slidable retainer is used, tall packages have a tendency to tip or fall off refrigerator door shelves due to abrupt movements of the door. In an attempt to solve this problem, many refrigerator door shelves or buckets have been equipped with retainers for preventing forward movement of tall packages. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,567,029 discloses a retainer assembly positioned above a refrigerator shelf. The retainer assembly includes a bar for preventing tall containers from falling forward off the shelf and finger members for preventing food containers from toppling over laterally onto each other. However, in this and other known divider and retainer arrangements, the retainer is positioned in a fixed location and the consumer does not have the ability to remove or position the retainer in any desired position.
Regardless of the availability of dividers and retainers for limiting the shifting of food items stored on refrigerator shelving units, there still exists a need in the art for a retainer assembly which will effectively prevent tall packages from falling forward off a shelf, as well as from falling over laterally on the shelf. Particularly, there exists a need for such a retainer assembly that can securely hold tall items in desired positions, while being easily removable for allowing a consumer to position the retainer in any one of various locations on a refrigerator door.